The result should give Sir Graham the best chance of re-election in 2014 and since he is the loudest and most experienced voice for the region in negotiations in Brussels and Strasbourg, this would ultimately be good news for citizens of the South West of England and Gibraltar.

While I am sure it will please Sir Graham enough to have been elected head of the list, he will no doubt be delighted to learn he received the most first preference votes from party members of all the other LibDem MEPs seeking re-election in 2014.

According to results emailed to this blog of the vote carried out using the single transferable vote system, Sir Graham received 79.1% of first preference votes ahead of Chris Davies in the North West (72.4%) and Edward McMillan-Scott in Yorkshire and the Humber (66.9%). Both Andrew Duff (East of England) and Baroness Ludford (London) received less than half of the first preference votes in their regions.

With almost eight of out every ten Liberal Democrat party members in the South West casting their first preference vote for Sir Graham, that to me represents quite a considerable vote of confidence in his work.

UPDATE 2 (05/12, 13.05):

Sir Graham has welcomed the result, this morning tweeting:

Pleased to have been selected once again to lead #libdem team for the SW in the 2014 EP elections with 79% of the vote by party members.

"I want to see us work proactively with our EU partners, to make our area more prosperous, safer and greener. The challenges we face on a daily basis, from a changing climate, to tackling organised crime and to securing our future energy and food supplies require us to work with other countries.

I want to continue to fight for a fair deal for the South West, using my knowledge and experience to deliver more funding for our region. Funding to spend on training our young people, getting more people back into work and investing in broadband and transport. I will continue to campaign for South West businesses which trade outside the UK, often selling goods and services onto new markets in India, China and the Middle East."

Hailing from the truly beautiful South West region of the UK, Andrew now works in Brussels and is a UK passport holder, European citizen, and a twice employee at the European Parliament.

While the EU in its current form is far from perfect, he is nonetheless firmly of the belief that the UK's prosperity and place in the world is best served as a member state and not as an isolated bystander.

Since October 2009, this blog seeks to document the work that our region's MEPs do for us in Brussels. As such, predictably, it rarely features UKIP.